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Australian Police Suspect Foreigners Paying Criminals to Perpetrate Antisemitic Attacks
Members of the Jewish community and supporters gather for a protest rally against rising antisemitism at Martin Place in Sydney, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: AAP Image/Steven Saphore via Reuters Connect
Law enforcement in Australia has started an investigation into the origins behind a spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.
On Wednesday, Australia Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said his department believes that “criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents” and that they have begun investigating “who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.”
Police have identified six attacks in Sydney alone since November 2024, including cars set on fire accompanied with anti-Israel graffiti and synagogues vandalized with swastikas. In Melbourne, arson attacks also targeted Jewish politician Josh Burns’ office in June and the Adass synagogue in December.
A December report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said that the country’s Jews experienced more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 495 in the prior 12 months. The number of antisemitic assaults rose from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. In the seven weeks following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic acts in Australia rose by 591 percent according to the ECAJ.
In a statement, Kershaw said on Tuesday that police sought to determine “whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.” He added, “We are looking at if — or how — they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also described the government’s suspicions about the nature of the attacks. He said that it looked as though “some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors.”
Efforts to counter antisemitic crime in Australia have intensified following a Tuesday act of arson at a Sydney child care center located close to a synagogue. The criminal also left antisemitic graffiti before starting the fire. This prompted the New South Wales Police to double their staffing on Strike Force Pearl, a unit created to counter hate crimes targeting Jews.
On Tuesday, Strike Force Pearl arrested a suspect in a Jan. 11 arson attack against a Sydney synagogue and announced they expected to arrest his accomplice soon.
Kershaw also named the AFP’s divisions tasked with investigating antisemitism and their areas of focus.
“The AFP has established Special Operation Avalite to target high-harm antisemitism. AFP-led Operation Ardvarna is targeting the display of prohibited symbols — both operations have made arrests and more are expected soon,” Kershaw said. “Special Operation Avalite has received 166 reports of crime since it was established in December last year. Of those reports, many are duplicates, some are already under investigation by our state counterparts and some don’t meet the threshold of a crime.”
Kershaw said that “Special Operation Avalite is investigating 15 serious allegations. All lines of inquiry are open to the investigations — including what anonymizing technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices, have been used to commit these crimes.”
Australia’s National Cabinet met in a snap meeting on Tuesday and agreed to establish a national database to track antisemitic crimes. “The purpose of one national reporting system is to better inform and coordinate responses to antisemitic incidents,” Albanese said.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton expressed skepticism about Albanese’s response to the attacks. “If the prime minister thinks that he’s going to get the Australian public off his back and that he’ll have some reprieve from the media by holding this meeting, he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation,” he said. “This is a national crisis. We are having rolling terrorist attacks in our community, and the prime minister is being dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation’s leaders.”
On Jan. 14, the Anti-Defamation League released the results of a new global survey into antisemitic attitudes by country. The group found that 20 percent of Australians — 4.2 million people — embrace antisemitic attitudes, agreeing with at least six antisemitic tropes.
The survey showed a gender disparity in hate, with 27 percent of men embracing such views compared to only 14 percent of women. Australians over 50 showed the lowest propensity for hate against Jews, with 13 percent harboring antisemitic views, whereas 33 percent of those 33-49 and 21 percent of those 18-34 expressed support for anti-Jewish bigotry.
The post Australian Police Suspect Foreigners Paying Criminals to Perpetrate Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.